Very cool seeing 162.5 mm supported. But it seems a bit strange my old favorite 167.5 mm is skipped. I've switched to 170 mm, so wouldn't affect me anyway. Overall it seems like a great option mass-wise. You can save a lot by going to a lighter outer chainring, especially if you drop it to my favored 46T.

Very cool seeing 162.5 mm supported. But it seems a bit strange my old favorite 167.5 mm is skipped. I've switched to 170 mm, so wouldn't affect me anyway. Overall it seems like a great option mass-wise. You can save a lot by going to a lighter outer chainring, especially if you drop it to my favored 46T.

Sorry if there is confusion. The new Quarq ELSA and Quarq RIKEN powermeters are replacing the SRAM S975 powermeter which only had an accuracy of 2%. The SRAM Red Quarq does already have a 1.5% accuracy.

As you can see the two new powermeters have a very similar platform as the SRAM Red Quarq; hence the now claimed 1.5% accuracy for all of them.

is the spider or what I essentially think of being "the quarq unit" the same between the Elsa, sram red, and the specialized unit? And if so, I'm a little lost as to how the specialized spider alone has a higher msrp than the Riken and almost as high of an msrp as the elsa or red units when those packages seemingly include the cranks, rings, and bb too!

It appears only the Elsa has the exogram cranks and the sram red and RIKEN have carbon cranks.

is the spider or what I essentially think of being "the quarq unit" the same between the Elsa, sram red, and the specialized unit? And if so, I'm a little lost as to how the specialized spider alone has a higher msrp than the Riken and almost as high of an msrp as the elsa or red units when those packages seemingly include the cranks, rings, and bb too!

It appears only the Elsa has the exogram cranks and the sram red and RIKEN have carbon cranks.

The Quarq ELSA, Red, and Specialized spiders are all based on a similar platform and technology but there are differences. If you look closely, you'll see they are not all exactly the same.

That is correct, the ELSA powermeters do have the Exogram cranks whereas the SRAM Red are currently shipping with the regular carbon arms. The RIKEN will also have regular carbon arms when they ship in February.

Are you able to elaborate as to what those differences might be at all? And would any of them have a performance or user impact/advantage/disadvantage? The product info pages make it appear as all three (elsa, red, and speci) are capable of the same things, with the same claimed accuracy.

Are you able to elaborate as to what those differences might be at all? And would any of them have a performance or user impact/advantage/disadvantage? The product info pages make it appear as all three (elsa, red, and speci) are capable of the same things, with the same claimed accuracy.

I cannot elaborate on the specifics but from the users standpoint, they all have the same capabilities and accuracy.

The best guess is they improved the strain gauge configuration to reduce the influence of chainring specifics.

It would be interesting to run a test: ride with Powertap at constant powertap power. Then remove a chainring bolt. Ride again at constant powertap power and see if Quarq reading is affected, and if there is a transition time for "Omnicalibration".

If you look closely at the product shots of the new Quarq PM's (including the new red PM) the spider appears to have two distinct structural elements. The main part of the PM is starfish shaped and appears to be a separate structural element which is inset into the spider. This is quite different to the old design where the strain gauges could be seen as nodes in each of the spider arms. My guess is that the gauges are in the central starfish shaped component and as a consequence would be far less affected by chainring bolt torque at the extremities of the separate structural spider. The design of the mating of the two elements probably distributes torque from the chainrings much more evenly to the gauges.

This is conjecture, not Quarq official, but it makes enormous sense. They changed the design to include a mechanical buffer between the chainrings and the main part of the spider. This helps spread out the load, reducing the sensitivity to details about chainring geometric load patterns.

It's an ongoing topic of discussion how important accuracy and precision are to power meters. People often argue precision is important, not accuracy, but if you lose accuracy you probably lose precision as well. There's always the gross pacing aspect of power meters which doesn't require much (5%?) but then the fitness tracking aspect which requires more (2% upper bound). I place a high value on accuracy and precision and if this design is not only more accurate out-of-the-box, but further retains it with chainring changes, that's worth a lot to me.

That is correct, the ELSA powermeters do have the Exogram cranks whereas the SRAM Red are currently shipping with the regular carbon arms. The RIKEN will also have regular carbon arms when they ship in February.

Who is online

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot post attachments in this forum